Massey Documents by Type

Permanent URI for this communityhttps://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/294

Browse

Subject: search.filters.subject.assemblage

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Māori households assembling precarious leisure
    (Taylor and Francis Group, 2024) Martin A; Hodgetts D; King P; Blake D
    Many members of the precariat in Aotearoa/New Zealand (NZ) struggle to access resources for leisure. This article draws on four interview waves with five precariat Māori (Indigenous peoples of Aotearoa/NZ) households (N = 32 interviews) using mapping and photo-elicitation interviews to explore participant leisure engagements. We document how precarious leisure for some Māori is assembled agentively by participants out of key elements associated with their situations (e.g. financial and housing insecurities) and core Māori principles and processes of whanaungatanga (cultivating positive relationships) and manaakitanga (caring for self and others). Participant accounts foregrounded the importance of mātauranga Māori (systems of knowledge) and culture in shaping contemporary leisure practices that can promote a sense of ontological security, place, belonging, connection, cultural continuity, and self as Māori. Though beneficial to self and others, participant leisure practices are rendered insecure by the resource restraints of life in the precariat.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    A Kaupapa Māori conceptualization and efforts to address the needs of the growing precariat in Aotearoa New Zealand: A situated focus on Māori
    (John Wiley and Sons Ltd on behalf of British Psychological Society., 2023-01) Rua M; Hodgetts D; Groot S; Blake D; Karapu R; Neha E
    In Aotearoa New Zealand, the precariat is populated by at least one in six New Zealanders, with Māori (Indigenous peoples) being over-represented within this emerging social class. For Māori, this socio-economic positioning reflects a colonial legacy spanning 150 years of economic and cultural subjugation, and intergenerational experiences of material, cultural and psychological insecurities. Relating our Kaupapa Māori approach (Māori cultural values and principles underlining research initiatives) to the precariat, this article also draws insights from existing scholarship on social class in psychology and Assemblage Theory in the social sciences to extend present conceptualizations of the Māori precariat. In keeping with the praxis orientation central to our approach, we consider three exemplars of how our research into Māori precarity is mobilized in efforts to inform public deliberations and government policies regarding poverty reduction, humanizing the welfare system and promoting decent work. Note: Aotearoa New Zealand has been popularized within the everyday lexicon of New Zealanders as a political statement of Indigenous rights for Māori.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The music-making milieu : a post-phenomenological study on well-being assemblages : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Psychology (endorsed in Health Psychology) at Massey University, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2023) Cathro, Michael Kenneth
    Recent research suggests that people working as music-makers often experience poorer health outcomes compared to the general population. However, these studies neglect the socio-cultural and material contexts from which these health outcomes emerge, resulting in recommendations for interventions that are overly individually focused. This thesis calls for a radical new conceptualisation of well-being that can address the milieu from which music-maker experiences of well-being emerge. The research addresses this gap via a post-phenomenological perspective, developing a conceptual framework informed by Deleuzoguattarian understandings of assemblage and affect to analyse conversations with seven professional and semi-professional music-makers in New Zealand. The study explores how their experiences of well-being are shaped by various social, material, and structural contexts. The findings reveal that music-making is a source of well-being through the transformative processes of becoming-other, allowing music-makers to transcend rigid subjectivities and individualism. However, this capacity for well-being can be disrupted by affective forces of neoliberalism and capitalism which territorialise creative work, are incapable of sufficiently valuing creative labour, and impose significant pressures on music-makers. The precarious nature of the music industry, the hyper-competitive gig economy, and the pervasive influence of alcohol emerge as significant factors affecting the well-being of music-makers. The study underscores the need for interventions that extend beyond individual-focused approaches, suggesting implementation of supportive structures and policies that are less reliant on capitalist models. The findings contribute to a broader understanding of well-being in the context of creative work, offering insights for future research and policy-making as well as contributing to the emerging literature on relational understandings of well-being.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Teaching New Zealand histories : a policy watershed or a watershed policy? : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Social Anthropology, Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2022) Wernicki, Wieslaw
    This is a study of the Sixth Labour Government's policy mandating the teaching of New Zealand histories in all schools and kura by 2022, for all levels of the compulsory curriculum (school years 1-10). This research explores the origins of the policy and asks the question why a policy approach was taken, rather than other approaches available to the Government, or the Ministry of Education, to achieve the policy outcomes. Looking at this through the theoretical frameworks of policy anthropology and applying the non-linear thinking of an assemblage methodology, I explore my own perceptions of this policy. I track the way this policy evolved through the documentation, the public consultation on the curriculum changes, and eventual release of the new curriculum and supporting resources. I argue that various human and non-human actors and influences, which I term components, were arranged in such ways that they created an environment, or zeitgeist, which manifested the policy. In taking this approach I sought to avoid accepting explanations that linear chains of causality led to the policy’s development. Instead, I sought to perceive the components in the environment as actors in a drama choreographed not by discreet forces, but by their own movements causing their interactions, proximities, and intensities to shape the environment from which the policy emerged. This research does not focus on humans and non-human actors but more on the interactions of forces which were generated as they negotiated the paths and shaped the environment in which they themselves exist.